Neological intuition in French

A study of formal novelty and lexical regularity as predictors

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4092879
AutoresAnne Lombard (0000-0002-6603-1497), Rene Huyghe (0000-0002-9494-0102), Richard Huyghe, Pascal M Gygax (0000-0003-4151-8255)
Año2021
Volumen254
Páginas103055
Fecha de publicación2021-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaLingua (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0024-3841 • E-ISSN: 1872-6135
EditorialElsevier BV (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/j.lingua.2021.103055
OpenAlexW3133815610
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas34

This paper investigates how neological intuition (NI), i.e., the metalinguistic ability to evaluate lexical novelty, is influenced by the linguistic properties of novel words. We focus on two properties: (i) formal novelty, depending on whether neologisms result from a morphological operation or are already existing forms that take on new meanings, and (ii) lexical regularity, depending on whether neologisms are created through regular linguistic processes or not. We hypothesize that morphological neologisms are more salient than semantic ones, and that irregular neologisms are more salient than regular ones. We designed a behavioral experiment to test these hypotheses with French native speakers, measuring detection rates and response times for various types of neologisms. The results support our main hypotheses, additionally showing that lexical regularity is a stronger predictor than formal novelty, and that an interaction effect exists between the two factors

Cognitive psychology · Cognitive science · Intuition · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Neologism · Novelty · Salient · Computer Science · Language, Metaphor, and Cognition · Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence